Reading Teachers: teachers who read and readers who teach

Summary of key findings

The TaRs project built on Commeyras et al’s (2003) American research and revealed that those professionals who were both readers and teachers, and who examined their own experience of reading were better positioned to develop genuinely reciprocal reading communities. By sharing their own experiences of reading, these teachers made a positive impact on children’s desire to read and frequency of reading at home and at school.

In this short film researcher Professor Teresa Cremin and teacher Becky Thomson explain the implications of the findings and how we can address them in our teaching practice.

More research details

Whilst all the Teachers as Readers (TaRs) project teachers widened their reading repertoires, documented their reading practices and developed their own pleasure and understanding about the process of reading, from the outset many expressed reservations about developing as Reading Teachers. They were unsure of the value of opening up themselves as readers in class and taking the time to share with the children something of their personal engagement as readers and their reading lives and practices. Many found the innovative nature of a Reading Teacher stance created uncertainty. They felt they needed to foreground the prescribed reading objectives from the curriculum and, whilst other changes to their pedagogic practice were made, some were reticent to risk introducing this personal dimension.

Over the project year, a continuum of practice developed. At one end, some teachers simply shared their renewed passion for reading with the children, whilst others took the opportunity to explore the scope of this more personal and creative stance, sharing something of themselves as readers and seeking to learn more about the children as readers and consider the nature of their different reading experiences.

As the Reading Teachers came to reflect on the impact of text and context on these experiences, and their everyday reading habits and practices, they demonstrated increased awareness of the significance of all readers’ personal preferences and practices; the importance of emotional engagement in reading; the social nature of reading, and the salience of readers’ rights and agency. They reviewed and re-described reading as a social and affective act of engagement and reframed their pedagogic practice in responsive ways to support the development of the children’s positive reader identities.

The teachers who fully explored this Reading Teacher stance made the most impact on the children’s attitudes to reading and their pleasure in reading. They also transformed children’s conceptions of them as readers.

It is surprising how you think the children would obviously know you are a reader and enjoy reading- they don’t necessarily – unless you explicitly tell them and give examples and show them the adult books you are reading. All this needs to be taught- I now teach from a reader’s point of view. (TaRs teacher, Kent)

Developing as a Reading Teacher represents a new challenge, particularly in accountability cultures, where tests and targets dominate. Yet the project revealed that this stance has potential. Positioned as fellow readers, the Reading Teachers talked about their own reading experiences and explored the dynamic between the children’s reading experiences and identities and their own. Gradually the locus of control around reading shifted and more overtly reciprocal communities of engaged readers were built.

To read more about this focus see the Executive Summaries, and related chapters/papers on http://oro.open.ac.uk/

Review your practice

This self-review document is designed to help you consider your practice as a Reading teacher: a teacher who read and a reader who teaches and explores possible connections between the two. This professional position was seen to markedly increase the impact on young readers RfP in the TaRs research.

What have you read recently for your own pleasure?

When did you read this book (see Question 1)?

In the last month

In the last three months

In the last year

Over a year ago

What kinds of reading for pleasure do you engage in

Novels

Short stories

Graphic novels

Newspapers

Magazines

Children's literature

Auto/biographies

Poetry

Non-fiction

Is your reading for pleasure mainly in print or via technology?

In print

E-reading

What triggers/supports your choice of book for your own reading?

Library recommendations

Bookshop write up

Friends’ recommendations

Book group/club choice

Knowledge of author’s work

Magazine/newspaper reviews

To what extent do you share your reading life with children in school?

Your interest in and attitude to reading

Aspects of your life history as a reader

The range of material you currently read for pleasure

Your practices and habits as an adult reader

Your views and emotional responses to the texts you read

Thinking about a specific instance when you share an aspect of your reading life, what do you think children/specific individuals in your class gained

How do you think the children in your class view you as a reader?

as an avid, enthusiastic reader who loves reading

as a keen reader who reads when time allows

as someone who may be a reader

I don’t think they will have considered this

Looking back at your responses, to what extent do you consider yourself to be a Reading Teacher?

Why in your view might it be advantageous for children if their teacher is a Reading Teacher: a teacher who reads and a reader who teaches?

Models passion and enthusiasm for reading

Develops personal reader-to reader relationships

Helps to build reciprocal and interactive communities of readers

Promotes a richer understanding of reading in 21st century

Highlights difference, diversity social and affective engagement

Practical classroom strategies

1. Explore reading histories: What you read and influential people and places

Help the children document their reading histories in some way, perhaps as a display, a treasure chest of old favourites or a collage or Power Point? You could share your own history as an example. You might take the class to a Foundation/ KS1 classroom to gather box loads, revisit favourites and create a book blanket covering the desks as a rich and pleasurable resource. Prompt sheets as homework can help uncover old favourites at home. Celebrate the diversity of the children’s histories.

You could also focus on who was important in these early reading memories (parents, carers, siblings, grandparents?) and the places (kitchen, bedroom, church, clubs, community hall?) where reading was undertaken. Create a display and discuss how other readers make a difference to us all as readers.

2. Share everyday reading: What do we read in 24 hours?

Invite the class to collect and record what they read in 24 hours and create collages. Reading isn’t only books, but environmental print too as well as many other in print and on-line texts. Share your 24 hour read too and consider what the children’s collages suggest counts as reading in their eyes. How wide is the breadth of their reading? Does your classroom also demonstrate this diversity? Consider what changes might be possible/necessary.

3. Share current reading texts: what are you reading at the moment?

Share what you are currently reading and create a staff or class notice board, making sure to change it regularly and perhaps showing the front cover of the book. Alternatively the staff or your class could create a treasure chest of old or current favourites.

4. Share current reading spaces: Where do you like to read?

Discuss your favourite places to read at school and at home. Share a few photos of your own favourite places and invite the children also to take photos and create a display, perhaps reviewing the space and comfort of reading at home and in school and considering what changes might be possible in school.

5. Share current reading times: When do you like to read?

Discuss when you like to read and why. For some people this might be at bedtime or weekends. For others, holiday periods give space for more extended opportunities to read. Share with the children a holiday ‘reading diary’ – this could be done retrospectively or drawn up as a ‘wish list’. You might like to do this on ‘Meet the Teacher day’ in the summer and then ask the children to bring back their diaries and share yours. Use the results, along with photos and images of the texts to create a display.

6. Consider the Rights of the Reader

Share Daniel Pennac’s The Rights of the Reader with the class, brilliantly illustrated by Quentin Blake and discuss them. http://www2.curriculum.edu.au/verve/resources/Connections_72_poster.pdf

The right to skip pages

The right not to read

The right not to finish

The right to re-read

The right to read anything

The right to read anywhere

The right to mistake a book for real life

The right to browse

The right to read out loud

The right to remain silent (Pennac, 1994)

Do children feel they have these rights in your class? Do they want others? They could decide on these and create their own rights and posters.

7. Examine the ‘right not to finish’

Have you or the children given up on particular books/texts? Have you/they been so irritated, offended, bored, or dissatisfied with a text or so unengaged that you/they stopped reading it? Share these experiences with your class and discuss why you/they gave up on particular texts. Might the class create a display of books/texts which they have not finished?

Display of The Rights of the Reader (Cremin et al., 2014:80)

8. Discuss reading habits

Initiate a discussion about reading habits, your own and the children’s. You could make a class list which might include the following:

skipping long descriptive passages in books

reading the end before you get there

skimming forward or check backwards/re-read to find out something

re-reading passages to help remember events or characters

turning the pages down or using a bookmark

flicking through

making connections to your own life

getting lost in the book

Discuss how these might vary according to the kind of reading material.

9. Create a ‘Voice your Views’ slot

Bring in a newspaper, magazine, or share a blog with the class that you want to discuss. Voice your views about the issue, express your opinions and see if the class agree. Invite them too to share their views about any issues in response to something they have read. Debate different perspectives, thoughts about the writer’s intended meaning and purpose and their angle on the issue.

10. Voice your emotions and personal connections

Books, magazines, newspapers, on and off-line can make us sad, happy, afraid, angry etc. As you talk about what you are reading, share your emotional response to the text and encourage children to do likewise if they wish. Sharing emotional responses is likely to lead to making personal life to text and text to life connections which are highly significant in building reading communities. You could make a display of books which make us laugh, cry, get cross and so forth.